


Legally Bindings

by nofluxgiven, RedTeamShark, Sagittae, TwinVax



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Detectives, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Critical Role Round Robin, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-20
Updated: 2018-08-20
Packaged: 2019-06-29 23:40:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15739671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nofluxgiven/pseuds/nofluxgiven, https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedTeamShark/pseuds/RedTeamShark, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sagittae/pseuds/Sagittae, https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwinVax/pseuds/TwinVax
Summary: In the Dwendalian Empire, there's a rise in murders, disappearances, and strange events. And in the city of Zadash, there's two detectives working to put the pieces together. But when every answer seems to lead to three new questions, can they really find a rhyme or reason to the world around them?





	Legally Bindings

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is part of the Critical Role Round Robin, hosted by the lovely [bboiseux](https://bboiseux.tumblr.com/) on tumblr! You can find my fellow team mates (and their fics that I helped contribute to!) on the co-authors list.
> 
> In summary, a Round Robin is a project where multiple authors work on a fic on a rotating schedule. I (RedTeamShark) started this fic, and then my co-authors took over and added to it, eventually passing it back to me as a completely different beast to be edited and smoothed out! This story is the finished product of that collaborative effort, which ran from July 8 to August 18, 2018. You can check out the [#critical robin](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/critical-robin) tag on tumblr for more of them, or see the masterlist here! (LInk to be added 8/26)

The pouring rain already had her mood fouled, the incessant dripping of raindrops from every surface higher than her–easy, in a city like this. It was weather more suited for Berleben than for Zadash, weather that left her wishing once again that she was born in a different skin. Goblins weren’t allowed to take the bus.

The shrill of the telephone on the other side of the door would usually scurry her steps along, but today she decided the answering machine could listen to whoever was calling _Legally Bindings_ first thing in the morning. Nott juggled her umbrella and fished for her key to the small office, her movements stopping as the phone’s ringing ceased and a voice could be heard through the pebbled glass.

“ _Hallo_?” Caleb’s low tone answering the call, a muffled hum as he listened. “She is not here yet.” Someone asking for her? Nott tried the doorknob, cursed under her breath as it didn’t turn and continued the search for her keys. “ _Ja, ja_ , I will inform her. Thank you, Bryce.” She got her keys in her hand just as the phone was set down with a _clunk_ , shoved them into the lock and opened the door.

“Good morning, Nott.” Caleb’s voice, low and pleasant, usually made her day better. She gave him a crooked smile, dropped her keys on her desk next to the still phone. The office smelled of strong coffee, a steaming mug back on the counter where Caleb had left it. “Bryce Feelid just called to speak to you.”

“Bryce? Did they say what they wanted?” She shook off her damp coat, hung it on the rack by the door and laid her umbrella beside it. A short, approving nod to see that Caleb had worn his scarf that morning.

“They said that the news media has not been informed of gender yet, but the discovered was female-bodied.” He moved back to his coffee, shoes squelching with the rain water that had soaked into them.

Nott swallowed down her initial reaction, the relief that she shouldn’t let show on her face. Another dead body was nothing to be happy about, but… “Thank you, Caleb. And I’ll be sure to thank Bryce, as well.”

“Of course, my friend.” Caleb finished adding cream and sugar to his coffee, before crossing to their office’s tiny back room. It was mostly storage, rows and rows of files and information, but he thought best in such a place. He had some to some of his most brilliant deductions that had cracked their toughest cases while in that small room.

Now alone, Nott sat at her desk, pulling on her headphones and plugging them into the answering machine. The sound of rain muffled, soon disappeared under the voices of messages left while their office was closed. They were hardly an in-demand service, the vast majority of calls automated sales pitches that ignored they were talking to a machine. She deleted these, wound the tape forward to the call between Caleb and Bryce Feelid, and listened.

 _“_ Hallo _?”_

_“Yes, hello, this is Bryce Feelid, from Alfield. I was calling for Nott.”_

_“She is not here yet.”_

_“When she arrives, will you let her know that the Halfling they found outside of my town this morning was a girl? We haven’t told the media yet, but I know that she’s asked me to keep an eye out for any Halfling men that turn up.”_

_“_ Ja, ja _, I will inform her. Thank you, Bryce.”_

The recording ended before Bryce could say their goodbyes, Caleb’s discomfort with the phone making him curt. And yet he’d answered it, taken this message for her when the machine would have done just the same… Nott smiled, her mood lifting as affection swelled in her.

They were an odd pair, to be sure, an astute-if-distant man and a goblin girl who acted in every way against her nature as much as possible. And yet together, they worked like a well-oiled machine. Together, they had solved some of the city’s strangest missing persons cold cases, gained favor among the lowest of the low and highest of the high, and earned a reputation that almost allowed them to scrape out a comfortable living.

With the machine cleared of messages, Nott turned to the rest of her morning tasks, switching her headphones to the small television on the corner of her desk and turning on the screen. She found a news program covering the discovery near Alfield, half-listened as the handsome young reporter spoke bleakly of the discovery of an unidentified Halfling in the caves outside of town.

There were too many cases like this, happening in too many small towns. Living outside of the cities was dangerous, sure, but to this degree… Not that the empire cared. They would happily let a million more deaths like this happen if it meant more money to line their royal pockets.

Nott made a note on her desktop calendar, the information that she and Caleb had been tracking for months, just in case something came of it. Their habitual monitoring of events had been helpful on more than one occasion in the past, was no doubt a contributing factor in Bryce’s warning phone call that morning… but it was still disheartening to look backwards through the months and see so many unsolved deaths.

Every three or four days, a page with red ink, deaths and disappearances that moved around the empire with no rhyme or reason. Today’s was Alfield, a Halfling woman in the caves. A week ago it had been a Gnomish man near Hupperdook; a month ago five cases, still unsolved, of missing and murdered persons around Trostenwald: an elderly man whose ruined body had been found near a lake, two Crownsguard in equally disfigured states the next night when they had gone to investigate, a young Dwarven girl, and a Lizardman, their bodies never discovered.

Some of the pages had more, blue ink with updates, black ink with conclusions. Many of them were bleak, the missing found dead, the murderers of the dead discovered and brought to harsh justice. There were few cases that ended with a happy note.

Pulling one headphone from her ear, Nott listened to the steady dripping of the rain outside, to the thumps and bumps of the others that rented out space in this building. Caleb was still closed in the storage room, hard at work piecing together information for cases that were not technically theirs to solve.

She slipped across the room on light feet, climbed onto the counter and fetched her coffee mug from the cupboard. Just a splash of hot coffee in it before she took it back to her desk, unlocked the bottom drawer and removed her flask, filling the mug the rest of the way with strong liquor. She drank slowly, turning the calendar back to the current day and tapping her pen against it, reading the captions rather than listening as the handsome young reporter shared the news that the discovered body was a woman, that this particular Halfling woman had been apparently attacked by a monster or an animal.

A place as vast as the Dwendalian Empire (and expanding, still expanding even now, the armies marching on to Xhorhas over the mountains), it was expected that there would be problems. The guard was stretched thin everywhere but the large cities, small towns left to practically fend for themselves. She knew first hand how vulnerable that made places like Alfield, like Trostenwald, like Felderwin; knew the monsters that would attack when a town was weakened, take what they wanted and leave the rest to burn. In different times a reserve regiment could be moved to defend a vulnerable place, chase away the midnight marauders and secure the safety of the people within. With another war on the horizon…

Nott drained her coffee mug as the door to the storage room opened, looked over her shoulder with an uneasy smile. Caleb had a stack of papers folded into his arms, spread them across the counter as he poured himself another cup of coffee.

“Did you find something, Caleb?”

“Maybe. It’s…” He shuffled the papers, turned to her and took a drink. “Trostenwald.”

Nott flipped to the pages on the calendar by memory, read aloud. “One elderly man found murdered on the edge of the Ustaloch, human, thought dead two or three days. Two Crownsguard left overnight to guard the scene, bodies discovered the following morning, murdered and disfigured in a similar fashion. Two missing persons reported, one a young Dwarven girl and the other an older Lizardman. Do you have something on it?”

“I found this in the Trostenwald folder.” Caleb passed her a sheet of paper, a flyer declaring _The Fletching and Moondrop Traveling Carnival of Curiosities_ would be in town for a week… A week which, smack in the middle of, there had been three murders and two disappearances. “And this.” Another sheet of paper passed to her, a newspaper article about the deaths. Near the bottom, in Caleb’s steady hand, was an underlined sentence.

_The authorities are still seeking members of the carnival where Enon Brinjay was last seen for questioning._

“You think there’s a connection?” Nott asked carefully, folding the papers and returning them to Caleb’s hands.

“The carnival comes to town, a man dies, two of their members vanish… and they leave before the Crownsguard can piece together the timeline. Before they can be asked about anything… unusual that may have happened at their event. I think that, perhaps, they ran away rather than move on naturally. The flyer states that the carnival will be in town until the ninth, but in the article published on the seventh they are gone.” He ran a hand through his hair, shaking his head. “And there’s one more thing. It took some digging, but…” He produced another newspaper article, this one from Deastok. A grainy black-and-white photograph of a group of people in front of a large tent. Nott looked it over carefully, her face deepening into a frown. “Tell me that that one,” Caleb pointed a finger to a tall figure in the back, holding a much smaller girl, “is a Lizardman.”

“A Fiend…” She squinted at the image, shaking her head. “I can’t tell what kind, but…”

“The carnival was in Deastok two weeks before Trostenwald, for a week.”

Nott was already flipping back in the calendar, shaking her head slowly. “Only a mystery man who washed up on the shores near the Menagerie Coast. Claimed to be wrecked from a ship sailing out of Port Damali, but no ships were reported missing from there.”

Caleb was quiet for a moment, exhaling slowly. “Well. Damn.”

“It might still be connected to the case in Trostenwald, if not all the others?” She offered, passing the newspaper article back to him and letting him gather the papers. “A traveling carnival of murderers would certainly be difficult for the empire to make the connection on.”

“I’ll keep digging.” He took his papers back to the filing room, hesitating in the doorway, looking at the silent images on the TV. “Nott… If you would like to tell me why Bryce gave you a courtesy call this morning, you are aware I will listen, _ja_?”

She swallowed with difficulty, slowly turned her chair back to her desk. “I… am aware. One day. Maybe. But…” It was a struggle, but the smile she turned to him was genuine. “For now, Caleb, thank you for the offer. It’s very kind of you.”

Back into the filing room, the door shutting between them. Nott dropped her head to the desk with a muffled groan, blindly digging her flask from the drawer and taking a long drink. She _should_ talk to him about it, he was kind to her, treated her like anyone else and not like the monster she was… Caleb had always seen her as an ally and an asset, as someone who understood things on his level as an equal--or maybe she was attributing her own wishful thinking to his intentions. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time.

“I hate the rain,” she murmured into the spread of papers on her desk, sitting up long enough to take another drink. At least the buzz of alcohol drowned out some of the thoughts that rainy days always brought back up. It’d been raining that day, too. She’d worried that the others would be able to trace their footsteps in the mud. They’d be found and dragged back and…

The not knowing was the worst part. She made it out. She stole and snuck her way to Zadash and found someone else who looked at her with kindness.

And what had become of him? Found and murdered? Returned home only to be attacked again? Still wandering lost in the woods near the village?

Not having answers really was the worst part.

Nott put her flask away for the time being, began sorting haphazardly through the papers on her desk. They weren’t currently actively working a case, but a number of organizations kept them on long term contracts. Crownsguard and criminals, nobles and peasants, everyone had a mystery to solve and not enough time to solve it themselves. Nott read through the cases they’d recently been passed, sorted them out how Caleb preferred to tackle them; those with the most information first, those with the least information last. A request from a nobleman on the Menagerie Coast that had been passed down the line until it landed on her desk, searching for a missing Tiefling girl that could be somewhere on the continent, that went to the bottom. Missing supplies of alcohol from a winery in Kamordah, she skimmed that before tossing it in the trash. They were looking for _people_ , not alcohol, and anyone with half an attention span could tell that an employee was skimming off the top. All they had to do to find their missing supply was find a speakeasy and work backwards. Honestly, Nott snorted, people could be so oblivious to the easy solutions to their problems.

Her hands froze as she lifted the next file, trembling slightly. “C…” She muffled the word with her other hand, eyes locked on the drawing of the familiar face that stared back at her. The picture didn’t have a beard, that was good. The hair was shorter and off his face, that was better. But the eyes… Even with ink on paper, they were still the piercing blue that she smiled at every day.

_Caleb Widogast, Wizard, Wanted for Crimes Against the Dwendalian Empire._

They were both running from their pasts. If he hadn’t told her, she could hardly blame him. She hadn’t told him, either.

The flyer stated that he was from the Zemni Fields. That he was likely in or around Rexxentrum. That he was powerful and dangerous and had gone rogue against the empire and committed atrocities.

Nott quickly balled the paper up and added it to the trash pile. Maybe another drink was in order.

She should tell him about it.

She should forget she’d even seen it.

She should--

A knock at the office door cut her thoughts off like a knife, a muffled voice on the other side.

“Bryce just called again, Nott. They have just been informed of some news from their colleagues that they wish to speak with us about. Two cases that pertain to two female Halflings and a Tiefling from that circus, and… a Halfling man from near Felderwin. This might be what you were looking for.” Caleb’s voice said through the door, but Nott had frozen, the pit of her stomach cold at the thought of what she would find. What news Bryce would give her, if they would bring her worst fears to light after she spent so long waiting and worrying about his fate.

She snapped out of it when his voice called her name again, sounding worried, and she quickly stood from her desk, “I’ll-I’ll be out in a minute! Don’t hang up on them, I just gotta...” she stared at the haphazard mess of papers on the besk, thinking about the flier that had Caleb’s face while thoughts of Yeza swirled and jumbled together in her head. She took a deep, steadying breath, for all futility did for her, and opened the door to look up at Caleb, “Let’s see what they were told.” she said.

For now, she would ignore what the flier she balled up said about her partner. She could figure all of that out once she knew what leads they had for the other cases.

* * *

Nott sat with her hands clasped together, staring intently at the phone in the middle of the table as Bryce talked, their voice on speaker for the both of them to listen, _“I assume you have gotten reports on the carnival and the search for some of the members who are under suspicion.”_

She saw Caleb nod out of the corner of her eye, clear discomfort back at having to interact with a phone conversation, “ _Ja_ , we had been speaking of it earlier. Looking for connections.”

“Nothing concrete,” Nott agreed, though she suspected and still thought a carnival of murderers would be the best way not to get caught.

_“The three, the female twin Halflings and the Tiefling, are being held in voluntary custody in Kamordah. I am unaware about what happened with any of the others, but these ones turned themselves in to the Crownsguard. If you wish to question them for your case, you are able and I can send word to the people watching them to look out for you.”_

Nott glared at the phone, hands gripped to the wood of the table firmly as she listened. Waiting but afraid to ask for them to switch to the other thing. They would do this one at some point, it was the perfect opportunity to get a case this big closed, but she wanted to know about the man.

Caleb seemed able to sense she wouldn’t speak, and covered a strained groan as he spoke up instead, “We will consider doing so, what of the other thing, with the Halfling man?”

Shuffling of papers came from the phone, and they hummed quietly, probably reading a reminder they had written to make sure they had all the information in order. _“The Halfling man is fortunately alive, but in critical condition in a Felderwin hospital, and has been for what I have been told is a few weeks. We are unsure if this is attached to the string of murders and was a failed attempt, or unrelated and he was just unlucky. The cause of injury was not provided for me, but I can give you the hospital address if you want it.”_

Nott’s voice was small. “Did--did they give you a name. For him? Did they tell you his name?”

There was a pause from the line, before their voice came out loud, echoing in her ears, _“He has been identified, but not publicly yet, as a man named Yeza.”_

Nott sat up on her chair, yelling into the phone louder then necessary, “Thank you Bryce! Um, try to stop it from being known that this possible attempt somehow failed in case they try again. We will take both of these cases and see if we can get them solved. Thank you for telling us, okay, bye!” She hung up the phone before they could answer, sitting back heavily in the chair as she looked at Caleb watching her.

She was shaking, she knew. She was afraid of what they had told her, even though she had some answer. He wasn’t dead, but he was very hurt. She had to see him, to check with her own eyes that it was her Yeza, but she would have to explain it to Caleb if they did; it would be weird for someone in their line of work to check on someone who probably wasn’t awake in a hospital.

He wouldn’t ask though, he’d wait and never ask if she didn’t tell. She wanted to tell him, so badly, about Yeza… selfishly, so she wouldn’t have to tell Caleb about the flyer she had found looking for him.

Nott looked at him, seeing him look steadily back at her, and exhaled, “I’ll… explain in the car, but can we get going to Felderwin to check up on him? I want to make sure of something. I promise I will tell you, so long as you drive.”

Caleb nodded. “ _Ja_. As I told you earlier, I will listen to anything you have to say, Nott.”

Nott smiled, feeling warm, and hugged him quickly before she raced for the door, “Thank you, Caleb! Let’s get going then!”

* * *

Nott's story was alternately halting and rambling, the amount of information she wanted to give against the amount of information she _needed_ to give against the information Caleb might want. He drove in silence, the radio off, his eyes on the road ahead but she could see the bare twitch of his eyebrows, the way his mouth would occasionally open and shape into unspoken words. He was listening, even if he wasn't responding. He was letting her go at her own erratic pace.

"Yeza, he--well you know... what I am. What sort of things I had to come from to be--to be here. Yeza was tangled up in all of that. I was the..." The torturer's assistant, the only job she'd been given that kept her out of the way. She was meant to keep track of the prisoners and the information they gave, was meant to harm and torment and... Nott exhaled unevenly, her fingers curling in the legs of her pants. "Yeza was a prisoner of--of my clan. Just a farmer from Felderwin, no one important, but he knew the fields around the area and he knew where crops were stored and... And we didn't really _care_ if we were holding people who were important or not--sorry, I'm rambling."

"You are fine, Nott." The first words Caleb had spoken since they got in the car, steady and even as usual. No judgement from him. That made it easier.

"We became... friends, of a type. I didn't want to hurt him and he didn't want to be hurt, so he gave me information and... and he taught me other things. Like how to speak the Halfling language. Like how to... to do a little magic, here and there. Nothing fancy. And I taught him, too! I taught him how to throw a dagger and how to make fletchings on arrows. And after a while... after a while I was told that we weren't going to learn anything else from him. I was told that I was spending too much time with him. I was told to... to kill him." She pulled her knees up on the seat, looking out at the long stretch of empty road between Zadash and Felderwin. Caleb had taken the back roads, both to give her more time for her story and because the highways were stressful for him to drive on. Too many large trucks around his little car.

"I couldn't do it. He was my first real friend. He was the first person who... who treated me like you do. Like a person, not just a monster. I know what I am. What I'm supposed to be. But it's never... it's never felt right..."

"You are supposed to be who you are, and that is Nott the Brave." Caleb's eyes darted to her, the corners crinkling in a brief smile. "You did not kill him, then?"

"It was raining. Like this morning. None... none of us like the rain all that much. I hate it even more now. I brought him out into the pouring rain because I knew--I knew there would be less of my clan around. I was to shoot him, an arrow in the--the neck, where there wasn't meat. We couldn't ruin the brain because the leader ate that. People... People take a long time to die if you miss when you shoot them in the neck. He stood before me and I aimed and... and then I shot the one that had come to watch, to harvest. I told Yeza to run and he took off in one direction, slipped loose of the ropes I had pretended to tie his hands with. I ran in the other direction. I didn't know if I was being followed or not, if he was being followed... It wasn't worth the risk to look back, to go back and try to find him. I got as far away as I could, all the way to Zadash, and... and there you found me."

"We found each other."

The road curved and ahead, down the hill, she could see it. Felderwin. Her past. Not her home, it had never been something as sentimental as that... but it was where Yeza was. Nott's arms tightened around her legs. "I hope he can forgive me..."

It had been a long ride to Felderwin, her fears and worries that finally came up to the surface after the phone call spilled out in the quiet car. But Caleb… He didn’t think less of her for it, and he had stayed supportive  as ever. That was the nicest thing, that he would still do that, even after she admitted to everything.

Now she stood in the doorway to a hospital room, with the background sounds of beeping in the back of her mind as she looked at the Halfling lying in the room’s single bed. She could see tubes and wires running from his body to the equipment, too many for her to even begin to trace origin to purpose. Nott held her breath in the doorway, her eyes darting down the hall. Caleb had opted to remain in the car until she was done.

There was no doubt that this was Yeza. She recognized his face, saw it almost nightly in her dreams. Still and peaceful with sleep but her mind’s eye could see it in other ways: contorted with pain; wide-eyed with shock; crinkled up with laughter. Her imagination supplied another look, pained and terrified and alone, hurt… Because of her? She may as well accept that, too.

Someone had almost killed him. Someone from her old clan? Some other beast that stalked the world? She had to know, regardless of the answer. It was another mystery to solve, another case to close. As soon as possible.

Nott’s throat clicked as she tried to swallow, her jaw creaking as she tried to speak. She’d altered her appearance in the car, disguised herself as a halfling girl and passed herself off as Yeza’s niece to the nurses. The voice that would come from her throat, she knew, would still be her own. Scratchy and monstrous and raw…

If it had been her clan that had found him? How would he react to hearing her voice again? What if he thought she was here to finish the job, that she had gone back to that life? What if he opened his eyes and told her it was okay, and she could kill him if she needed to?

Nott shuddered with the thought, the words dying on her lips. She couldn’t… She couldn’t. Not yet. One day she would apologize, she would promise him to do better with herself and to take care of him and she would protect him. One day.

For now, Nott backed away from the room, hurried down the hall and back out to the car. Whoever had hurt Yeza was a monster and she intended to make them pay, but there were other priorities than her personal agenda. If she focused on that, maybe the sting of tears in her eyes would dry up before she got into the car with Caleb.

She dropped the illusion as she got into the car, scrubbed a hand against her face quickly. “We can go now. He’s… alive.” Her voice was raw with suppressed emotion, still.

“Are you ok?” Caleb asked, his blue eyes scanning her face.

She swallowed, “Yeah. Let’s go see about those carnival people, yeah? See if we can get answers.” With the answers, would hopefully bring a way to take down whoever had hurt her friend. Once that was done and he was safe, she could visit again.

After another moment, Caleb started the car, driving once more out of Felderwin, headed for Kamordah.

* * *

The streets of Kamordah were relatively busy during the day. It was a bit different than the other areas that she had been to, leaving cars and taxis behind in favor of having a large, open plaza for stalls and kiosks to stand. Even with her mind focused on finding these carnival people and finding out more information, Nott couldn’t help but glance over the shiny trinkets and sparkling jewelry. It was tempting, to say the least.

Caleb also seemed to notice her wavering attention and slowed his pace beside her. “Do you want to look around, Nott?”

She shook her head immediately, “No! I--I didn’t mean to get distracted. We have to find these carnival people and find out what the hell is going on; we don’t have time to...” Guilt started to fill her empty stomach, a reminder that all she had earlier that day was a couple cups of boozy coffee.

“You’ve been working very hard, no one is saying otherwise. Perhaps we can take a small break before we jump into the rest of the investigation.” And there it was: the wise words of Caleb Widogast, always so kind, so gentle to her. She always wondered what she would do without him.

Still, her gazed fixed on the Crownsguard building at the end of the plaza.

Caleb added softly, “They aren’t going anywhere, Nott.”

She hesitated, but then nodded, “You’re right. We can meet at that bench in ten minutes. Let’s take a short rest.”

He hummed in agreement, then began to turn away. “I will see you in ten minutes. Eat some real food, please, Nott.”

“Yeah, yeah, I will.” She watched as he entered the crowd of people and started to browse some of the stalls curiously.

It was a bit strange how tables had turned. It seemed like just last week she had been the one telling him to feed and take care of himself more. She hadn’t realized that throughout this case, he had stepped up more and more, just to be at her side when all the shit started to hit the fan.

Nott sighed and walked over to the nearest food vendor, which happened to be a sandwich truck. Due to her height, she knew that it was probably more trouble than it was worth to order from the window, but Caleb’s words had only reminded her of how hungry she was. She waited her turn in line and stepped up to the truck, asking for two sandwiches, one for her, one for Caleb.

“That’ll be all?” The bearded man asked her automatically, still penciling in her request.

“Yeah, that’s all for the food,” Nott replied, before her detective’s mind pitched in an opportunity to gather some more information. “But what can you tell me about the carnival here?”

He ripped off the notepad paper and put it aside for another person to start assembling their food. “Oh, Gustav’s bunch? They’re an alright group--attract a lot of business at night. Some people like to unwind from work and see their show. They’re further into the plaza if you’re that interested, but I heard that they aren’t performing since some of their people got into a bit of trouble.”

“Have you been to their show?”

“Once, yeah. One of the people gave me a ticket in exchange for some grub. It was entertainin’ to say the least.” He took a few moments to wrap both of her sandwiches then leaned well out of the window space to hand them to her.

She reached up and grabbed the food, but not before asking, “Who was the one who gave you the ticket, if you don’t mind me asking?”

The man shrugged, “A Tiefling. Purple. Chatted around all charismatic and what not. He had a big lady with him, too.”

 _Female twin Halflings and a Tiefling. Seems like the Tiefling is a charmer,_ she noted mentally.

“Thanks!” Nott put a couple of coppers into the tip jar and went to the bench that she and Caleb were supposed to meet at. Once she got there, she scanned around for any sign of him, but found that he was nowhere to be seen. She didn’t worry, really. He still had a few minutes left to himself.

Nott decided to dig into her food, chewing slowly while she stared at the Crownsguard building in the distance. The answers were so close… And she felt horrible for thinking it, but she just wanted this case done so she could help Yeza. The man had done so much for her, it just didn’t feel right that she was sitting and relaxing when the person who attacked him was still out there. The guilt from earlier returned and caused her stomach to roll and the food she was chewing started to taste like sand.

“Nott.” Caleb’s voice snapped her out of her thoughts. She turned and found that he was watching her with a concerned expression. “You look upset.”

She shook her head. “It’s nothing... I, uh, got you some food.” Nott held out the other sandwich, wanting to change the subject.

He gave her a small smile, “I will trade you, then.” Caleb took the food and placed something in her hand that was wrapped in tissue and tied with a bow. She shot him a suspicious glance, but opened it carefully to find a necklace sitting in the center of the paper. The chain was long and shone silver. Nott couldn’t say a word, not even when she picked it up to examine the dark red gem that dangled from it.

She was so focused on-- confused by-- the jewelry, that she didn’t even notice Caleb sit next to her. It wasn’t until he took the chain from her fingers and put it over her head that the surprise finally wore off.

“Caleb… You didn’t have to…” Nott whispered breathlessly, still staring at the beautiful and yet, simple jewel at the end of the long chain. Eventually, she looked back up to him and all she could say was, “Why?”

Caleb stared at the ground for a second before speaking, “I am not a rich man, Nott, you know this. I do not have the wealth of those in the Zauber Spire or Rexxentrum. But I do know that I value your friendship, and the fact that I cannot do anything to help you during this difficult time is frustrating.”

Nott’s eyes jumped to her friend, shocked and slightly horrified. “You don’t have to buy my friendship, Caleb!”

“I know that, but I hope that you are aware of the same,” he murmured, looking up and finding her gaze.

“W-What do you mean?” The chain felt heavy hanging from her neck.

He leaned forward and hunched over his knees, his elbows resting on his legs. There was a pause in the conversation, and he seemed to be finding the right words to say. He had let her speak at her own pace earlier, she would give him the same courtesy now. Soon, he came up with, “I did not want you to feel like you ever have to share more than you are ready to. You told me about yourself thinking that I would judge you, but after all I have done… I would not even be able to.” The last words came out more bitter than the rest, and Nott’s mind flashed back to the poster. Whatever was going on between him and the Empire seemed to be heavy on his heart. Had she never noticed before?

Still, he continued, “I trust you, Nott. And one day I want to be able to trust myself enough to tell you about what happened to me, as well. The necklace is a promise that I will do so. And a reminder… That whatever happens during these cases, whatever we find out, I am here.”

The words took a moment to sink in, but as soon as they did, Nott could feel the tears forming in the corner of her eyes. There were no real words to describe how she felt about Caleb Widogast at that very moment, and she showed this by throwing her arms around his shoulders. “Thank you.”

She felt his arms wrap around her and he whispered. “Anytime.” Nott pulled away after a minute and wiped at her nose quickly, sniffling still. He placed a hand on her shoulder. “Are you ready?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I am,” she stood from the bench with a stronger resolve.

From there, they both made their way down the plaza, and Nott ignored every glint and glow of the knick knacks surrounding her, completely focused. She opened the glass doors to the Crownsguard station and headed straight for the front desk.

“Excuse me. I’m here to talk to the people from the carnival, Bryce said you would be expecting us,” Nott told the man behind the desk.

“Carnival… Oh, yes, yes.” The man cleared his throat, shuffled some papers and glanced from Nott to Caleb and then back. “They’re currently being held only for questioning, not under suspicion, so we don’t have a private interrogation room available. Johannes will lead you to meeting room four and I’ll go bring them in. Would you prefer them all at once or one at a time?”

“One at a time, please. Perhaps start with the Tiefling.” Nott’s fingers curled over the edge of the desk as the man stood, her eyes trying to scan all the papers there at once. Information was key in their line of business, any that she could get for free was a bargain.

The most notable paper was the winery case she’d rejected earlier,and Nott wondered for a brief moment if the Crownsguard would appreciate the solution enough to ignore that she’d been snooping. Not worth the risk, she decided, turning away and following as another Crownsguard led the two of them to a small room. A conference table took up the majority of the space, half a dozen chairs circled around it. She sat down at one, helped Caleb spread out the paperwork on the circus that he’d brought.

The man from the desk opened the door a few minutes later, led in a purple Tiefling in an ostentatious coat. His movements jingled the jewelry in his horns and he took a seat with a flourish, kicking his boots up onto the table despite the Crownsguard’s wince. “So, can I start demanding a lawyer yet?”

“You turned yourself in voluntarily, Mr. Tealeaf.”

“Please, please, my friends call me Molly.” His sharp-toothed grin fell on Nott and Caleb, his eyebrows waggling.

“Please answer their questions, _Mr. Tealeaf_.” The Crownsguard huffed and stepped out of the room, shutting the door behind him.

Silence held, before Nott cleared her throat, carefully poising her pen over a notebook. “You are a performer with the Fletching and Moondrop Circus, are you not?”

“Carnival of Curiosities.”

“Beg your pardon?”

Molly sighed. “We’re a Traveling Carnival of Curiosities, not a mere circus. And yes, I perform with them.” He glanced to Caleb, his grin turning wicked. “I am Mollymauk Tealeaf, swallower of swords.”

Caleb’s non-committal hum almost managed to drown out Nott’s snicker. She schooled her face into a careful blank as quickly as possible, reminded herself she was on the job and had to be _professional_. “Could you identify the people in this picture for us?” Across the table she pushed a copy of the picture the Deastok paper had published, each face carefully circled with an arrow and a space to write the name in the margins. Nott passed over a pen, her hands folding expectantly.

The Tiefling didn’t even bother to lift the pen, simply looked over the picture and beamed. “Oh, I remember this one! I look so handsome, huh? It was the first time that someone wanted a picture of all of us.”

“Mr. Tealeaf--”

“I told you, call me Molly.”

Nott looked to Caleb, blinking helplessly. He wasn’t any better at this than she was, most of the time, but they had to get _something_ out of this trip.

“Mr. Mollymauk, we would like to have a positive identification on each member of your traveling carnival when we leave her today. We are… quite aware of who you are, now.” Caleb tried, his words slow and even.

“You’re better off getting the twins to do that. I don’t know how to write.”

The detectives exchanged another look, a heavy sigh between them. Caleb pushed forward regardless, his eyes on the papers before him, his hand slipping into the pocket of his coat. “Please tell us about the night Enon Brinjay attended your show in Trostenwald. Provide as many details as you are able to recall.”

Mollymauk’s red eyes narrowed for a moment, his head shaking briefly. “Don’t try to trick a trickster, my friend. I’ll happily tell you what I know without you creeping into my brain.”

Her pen moved across the paper as he spoke, as he filled in various gaps about that night in Trostenwald. Caleb listened, nodded along with information he’d already pieced together from the articles and his own intuitions about these things.

Enon Brinjay had attended despite the warnings against the elderly and infirm seeing the thrilling show. Everything had been fine until Toya, the Dwarven girl, and Kylre, the Lizardman that performed with her, had gone on stage. The show had been their usual, an operatic segment about a girl befriending and taming a fierce monster, but something had gone wrong…

“I was in the back, with Gustav, preparing for my part. I didn’t know anything was wrong until the screaming started… The only ones from our group who might have seen anything significant have since disappeared. When we reached Kamordah and heard about the other deaths, Gustav told us to set up while he and Desmond went back to Trostenwald. Ornna and Bo insisted on going with them… but we didn’t feel right, being so broken up. Yasha had taken off, she does that sometimes, but we were all feeling it with Toya and Kylre missing, too. So the twins and I agreed to turn ourselves over to the Crownsguard here and wait for answers.” Molly finished with a huff, pointing at the picture. “So that one’s me, and up front are the twins, Mona and Yuli. There’s Gustav and Desmond on either side. Ornna and Bo here and here. In the back is Kylre with Toya on his shoulders.”

Nott’s pen stilled finally, dropping to the table as she stretched her hand out. A lot of information without a lot of answers, but information was just as valuable.

“About this Kylre fellow… You say he is a Lizardman?” Caleb asked softly, his eyes on the picture, one finger tapping the tall figure with the Dwarven girl on his shoulder.

“Yeah. Comes from Xhorhas or something, I think.”

“You are aware he is actually some sort of Fiend?”

“What? That’s nonsense.” Molly’s curt answer was betrayed by his actions, his eyes narrowing, scanning the grainy photograph. “What sort of Fiend would he even be? I know he’s a little… Odd, and we put that up for the show, but… he’s… he’s always been so kind. Especially to Toya. Especially because of Toya.”

“That is the information we want you to provide. Anything about unusual circumstances you have witnessed in your travels, Mr. Mollymauk.”

The short burst of laughter startled Nott, her eyes narrowing. “Something funny?”

“My friends, I’m with a carnival. Every circumstances I’ve ever been in is unusual. Right from the very start.”

* * *

The twins were even less helpful, somehow. Despite the request for individual meetings, the two of them came in together, spoke in unison for the majority of the questioning. They would not waver from the story they told together, just different enough from Mollymauk Tealeaf’s version of events that it was clear _someone_ was lying about _something_. Nott rubbed her temples as the Crownsguard led them away, looking to Caleb.

“We don’t have many more answers than when we started the day.”

“Not yet. But perhaps soon…” He gathered papers into his bag, his eyes narrowing. “What do you suspect, Nott?”

Her pen tapped lightly on her notebook, eyes darting over the stories they’d been told by the three carnies. “I don’t trust any of them. I don’t think any of them are revealing the entire circumstances. Either to protect themselves or to protect the guilty party… But I don’t think the carnival is directly tied with other incidents around and outside the empire. The evidence just doesn’t back it up. They’ve been traveling around and probably swindling people, but Trostenwald is the first instance of something happening in their presence. I’d like to go down there and walk the scene, before too much of it is washed away.”

“Perhaps… Perhaps we take one of them with us. That Mollymauk fellow. Perhaps being back there will jog his memory of the night of Enon Brinjay’s death.” Caleb shouldered his bag, his blue eyes on her for a moment, crinkling into a smile. “There could be ties to the other, more recent attacks… The one in Alfield, perhaps.” They walked as they spoke, down the winding hallway to the front desk.

“The Trostenwald cases all seem to be linked, Enon Brinjay and the two others. The disappearances. Mollymauk Tealeaf referenced someone named Yasha, but she wasn’t in the picture, she’s not here, and she’s not listed as missing from any of the files. There’s no reference to her to be found, is there?” Nott asked, her fingers closing around the stone in the necklace Caleb had given her earlier, twisting it in worry.

He closed his eyes for a moment, leaning his hip into the desk and mentally rereading the files. “Nothing. She is as much of a mystery as the rest of it, but perhaps not part of this particular mystery.”

The return of someone to the desk stopped their speculation, a different member of the Crownsguard than the one who had seen them in. Dark eyes narrowed on Nott for a moment before the man addressed Caleb. “Was there anything else we could help with today?”

“Ah, yes… The circus people, they are here voluntarily, are they not?” Caleb straightened his back, centered his gaze just over the Crownsguard’s shoulder.

“Turned themselves in to be held until we got some answers. Why?”

“Would you be, ah… amenable to releasing… one of them into our temporary custody?”

“We want to take the Tiefling with us to Trostenwald, see if the scene of the crime jogs his memory about that night a bit,” Nott added, her fingers curling over the edge of the desk, standing on her toes to put her whole face above the surface. Caleb would talk if he had to, if people wouldn’t talk to her, but it made him uncomfortable. She didn’t mind taking over the conversation. The nasty looks and disdainful voices rolled off her shoulders, for the most part.

The Crownsguard’s lip curled as he flipped through some papers, his dark eyes narrowing further. “If the Tiefling agrees to it, he’ll be your problem instead of ours.” He turned away without another word, left through a doorway.

“ _Arschloch_ ,” Caleb whispered at the closed door, leaning over the desk and skimming paperwork. “There is no need to be so rude about it all.”

“It’s fine, Caleb. We’re still getting what we want.” Nott patted his hand briefly, pointing. “That one there, the missing wine, came across our desk, too. I thought about telling the one earlier how to crack the case, but now I’m glad I didn’t.”

“Find a speakeasy, _ja_?” Caleb’s lips curled into a smile, his hand brushing through Nott’s hair for a moment. “It’s too bad we deal in problems with people and not alcohol.”

“My thoughts exactly.” They moved back from the desk as the door opened, the Crownsguard practically shoving Mollymauk Tealeaf to them.

“Lawmaster Norda will be expecting you to report in upon arrival. He’s your problem now.”

“And what a wonderful problem I am to have. Hello again!” Molly beamed, turning around and letting his coat spin out behind him, giving an over exaggerated wave to the Crownsguard as he walked backwards out the door, flanked by Nott and Caleb. As soon as the doors to the building shut he turned around, his smile still bright. “What a prick.”

“Couldn’t agree more. So, you’ll come with us to Trostenwald and walk the scene of the crime with us?” Nott asked, looking up at Molly. The clouds from the morning’s rain had finally broken, sun starting to dry the wide central plaza of Kamordah. The jewelry on his horns glinted in the light, the shine only matched by his teeth as he turned a wide smile to her.

“If it clears the names of all the people I know, I’ll do anything. Also, between us? Sitting in that Crownsguard station was starting to get to me. Gray walls are the worst.”

The ride to Trostenwald was a long one, far to the south and east from Kamordah. Mollymauk sat in the back seat, chattering almost incessantly. Caleb flipped the radio on after perhaps five minutes, but all that did was encourage the Tiefling to sing along and talk over the commercials.

“Shh!” Nott hissed back suddenly, turning the radio up as a news report came through. She leaned forward, her pen over her notebook, as a breathless reporter spoke.

“ _There’s been a confrontation in Trostenwald, we’re still gathering details but from what we understand a small, private group outside of the Crownsguard has dispatched of a Fiend that was terrorizing the area--_ ” Caleb and Nott exchanged a look, both of their attention rapt on the radio. “ _\--and a young Dwarven girl has been rescued from its grasp. The Crownsguard haven’t released names or status of any involved yet but we’ll be sure to keep you informed of any updates as soon as we’re made aware of them._ ”

Caleb’s quick fingers turned the radio down again as the music came back, his eyes on Mollymauk in the rearview mirror. The Tiefling had gone silent, his purple skin suddenly ashen. “Kylre… Toya…”

He didn’t need to ask, Caleb edged the car’s gas pedal down a little further, inched their speed over the posted limits to get them to Trostenwald.

* * *

Lawmaster Norda _definitely_ didn’t want to see them come waltzing in. As soon as the trio stepped into the Crownsguard offices she was waving them away, barely even looking over her shoulder. “No. Absolutely not. You have no reason to _be_ here--”

“We have answers,” Caleb spoke up, gesturing Mollymauk forward slightly. “This one, he is with the circus. He’s agreed to give us more information.”

“And I have a dead body and a girl claiming that we murdered her companion in cold blood with no evidence. I had to _gag_ a _child_ because she keeps trying to do something to us with her singing.”

Molly’s red eyes were wide, his purple face still pale. He’d been silent for the remainder of the drive, hadn’t said a word as they’d walked into the Crownsguards. His mouth moved for a moment, a low, choked sound in his throat before he swallowed and forced words out. “Toya isn’t trying to hurt anyone. Her singing, it… It’s _good_ magic. It can change moods but if she’s singing now it’s to calm herself down. Everyone could use that. Let her sing, please. Keep her away from everyone else if you have to, I’ll watch her, but let her sing.”

Norda huffed, her gaze moving up and down him quickly. “I recognize you. You were doing tarot readings the night this all went to shit. You’re with the circus?”

“Carni--I am.”

“Then you knew you were toting a Fiend around the Empire.”

“Kylre isn’t a Fiend, he’s a--”

The door slammed open, three people staggering in surrounded by more Crownsguard. The noise outside, shouted questions, seemed to indicate that the media had finally moved here. The lobby was quickly getting overcrowded and Nott and Caleb moved themselves to a wall, leaving Mollymauk to face Norda and the rest to sort themselves out.

The gaggle of voices were too many, too varied, trying to ask and answer too many questions at once. Nott held the sleeve of Caleb’s coat as he rocked back on his heels, ran her fingers over the uneven textures.

The room descended abruptly into silence at Norda’s shout of “Enough!”, all eyes on the Lawmaster as she stood upon her desk. “Enough,” she repeated, quieter. Her gaze moved along the crowd, before she pointed. “You,” to Mollymauk, “you and you,” to Caleb and Nott, “and you three,” to the trio that had come in with the group of Crownsguard, “all are going to go to the Nestled Nook Inn. _None_ of you are to speak to the media before I have a chance to take statements. That means you, Widogast.” She looked to Mollymauk, her face softening just slightly. “We’ll let the girl sit with the others from the circus that came to try to help.”

“Thank you.”

“Now, everyone who doesn’t work directly for me, out! Stay at the inn until we come for you. The empire will cover your rooms if needed, but not your meals or drinks.”

They shuffled off, past the press and the Crownsguard that held them at bay, down the road. The group, now grown to six, stopped at a corner a short ways away from the building.

“Uh… So where the fuck’s this inn, anyways?” A woman in mostly blue asked, looking up and down the street. “I’ve never been to this town before.”

Caleb made a noise in the back of his throat, moving past her and continuing on. Nott followed behind him, gesturing to the others. “It’s this way. We know which one she means.” Her hand stayed on Caleb’s coat, her eyes tracking over each of the new three. A Human woman in blue. A green-skinned man, Half-Orc maybe? A blue Tielfing woman who fell into step next to Mollymauk with a beaming smile.

The Nestled Nook was a small inn, two floors with maybe ten rooms total, plus the common area. Mollymauk held the door as they entered, nodded to each person. The green-skinned one spoke to the woman behind the counter, turning and looking them over. “Welp, she has three rooms available. Uh, looks like we’re bunkin’ up?”

“I’m with Beau!” The blue Tiefling called immediately, wrapping her arms around the Human woman’s waist.

“I can room with Caleb,” Nott added, her voice echoed by Caleb’s small nod of affirmation.

“Guess that means you and me, uh…”

Molly wasn’t paying attention, his eyes focused across the room. He moved past them without a word, dropped down at a table next to a large woman with black and white hair. Immediately he was moving and talking animatedly, waving the group over. “Everyone, this is Yasha. She’s also from the carnival.”

The other five shuffled over to join him, grabbing chairs from empty tables and settling in around the pair. Introductions passed around as they talked and drank.

Jester, the blue Tiefling. Fjord, the green guy. Beau, the Human woman. Mollymauk, Yasha, Caleb, Nott.

Nott looked among their small group, a frown on her face. She had spent the past year or so working with Caleb, surrounded by people who ignored her if they weren’t outright belligerent. Yet here was a group that seemed unbothered by her appearance. A group that treated her as one of their own almost instantly.

Her thoughts meandered as they talked and drank, to Yeza in his hospital bed. To looking in at him and being unable to approach, to voice her feelings. She would have to do better. After they finalized this case in Trostenwald. After their group broke apart. She would go back to Felderwin and she would see Yeza, tell him the things that needed to be said.

It was something to look forward to.


End file.
